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The fans’ frustration was obvious halfway through the second half when Neil Aspin was booed for taking off Manny Oyeleke. I know everyone wants to be a football manager and so fans will have their say if we think the bloke in charge has got it wrong.

The fans like Manny and I thought he was putting more into the game than some other players so I wasn’t happy when he came off.

But the manager knows what he is doing - hopefully! - and you have to say the change worked because we came back to get a point.

Port Vale's players celebrate the late equaliser in the 2-2 draw at Morecambe

There was frustration with the overall performance though because it seemed we went into the game very defensively, certainly compared to the Stoke under-21 game when we were on the front foot from the start. And yes, I know it’s different opposition.

Anyway, win, lose, or in this case, draw, it’s nice to be talking about the actual football again after the trouble at our game at home to Stoke dominated the headlines.

What happened was disappointing, to say the least. What must be really disappointing from Stoke’s point of view is that this was the furthest their under-21s had got in the Checkatrade Trophy and no-one was talking about that.

I know Stoke’s youngsters lost, but they put in a battling performance and the fact they kept on playing with everything else that was going on was an achievement.

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It is always frustrating when what happens off the pitch overshadows the game itself. As fans’ liaison officer I was making Stoke fans welcome before the game and having plenty of banter.

But as we saw, everything changed. Innocent people were affected by it, including frightened children in the stands - and I saw that at first hand because we went to one youngster who was injured. They were scenes I hoped we had left behind in football years ago.

We also saw after the game the vandalism that had been caused to the away end. So, the question is should Stoke City pay for the damage? I am not sure there is a legal obligation for them to do so, but morally maybe there is and I believe other clubs have done so in the past. Let’s face it, it wouldn’t make a massive difference to Stoke City’s coffers if they paid towards the bill.

Broken windows at Vale Park in the aftermath of the derby. (Image: Adam Boulton/PA Wire)

But I would also question how many of the troublemakers in the away end were Stoke City fans and how many came along just because it was Port Vale. There was a section causing trouble but there was also a section who just wanted to watch the game and support the team, so let’s not lump them all together.

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I respect other people’s decisions but, from my point of view, it’s because I don’t agree with academy teams in this competition, and because I fear it could eventually lead to B teams in the league itself.